D.H./H.S. Sea Vixen FAW.2***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Unless we get an extension I am not going to finish this, and even if we do I expect it will end up in the KUTA, but what the heck!😄

I have been wanting to replace my ancient Frog model, and judging by the reviews in the GB, this reboxing of the Cyber Hobby kit is not bad if you ignore the ridiculously undersized ejection seats, which I may be able to fix, and the incorrect nose shape. Fortunately I bought a resin replacement nose a few years back when I was considering buying the Xtrakit version.

 

Pete

Edited October 30, 2023 by PeterB

[LorenSharp]

You can do it Peter. Still have ALL kinds of time.

[PeterB]

For obvious reasons I am doing a bit of an Enzo and not showing all of the stages - hopefully I will not go quite so fast that I miss something I should have done but knowing me that is probable

 

So I made a start on the pit - pretty basic but easy enough to put together - I will show you it later as I should first mention the ruddy seats. As Enzo said they are very small but that seems to be a problem with other Vixen kits, perhaps due to the lack of space, not of course helped by the thickness of the plastic in the fuselage, canopy and other parts which reduces the space available by a few mil, but this is far worse than that!

Kit seat is on the left and a copy of what should be the same MB Mk 4 seat from the Airfix Buccaneer on the right. If I want to use the "correct" size seats I am going to have to reduce their height a fair bit, particularly the one for the observer and the pilot's seat will also need the width reducing at the bottom to clear the side consoles- good job I still have the mould so I can cast a few spares if needed. I can understand why one modeller thought they had been moulded in 1/144 scale not 1/72.

 

Anyway, whilst I am thinking about that I have made a start on building up the lower fuselage by adding the wheel bay and adding a bit of lead around it. The Quickboost resin nose weighs about 4g more than the plastic one which should help, except the kit one was of course hollow so could have lead added. - the instructions call for 15g!

Next up I added the inner plates of the intakes, joined up the exhaust pipes and trunking and added them together with wheel bays in the wings, having remembered to drill holes for the stores. With those in place I added the pit together with more ballast at the front, and the small intake vanes that Revell provide. In case I do need more ballast I will leave the air brake off and close it up later after adding some through  the hole - strange that Revell provide a brake open option but have missed out the interior. as far as I can see.

And here is a closer look at the pit sans seats.

Pushing the Macro so a bit grainy. The instrument decs are not very obvious but will do as the openings at the top are not big and as everything is black not much will be seen.

 

Tomorrow I will start surgery on resin seats - I foresee a lot of bad language.

 

Pete

Edited November 1, 2023 by PeterB

[PeterB]

In the end I had to file down the bottom of the resin seats until they were paper thin, but they now fit.

 

Whilst I was sorting that out I glued together the wings, so after joining up the fuselage halves I soon had them on. I also assembled the booms.

The engineering and fit is actually pretty good though I will have to use a little filler on one or two of the joins, particularly the long one on the fuselage sides. I am quite impressed by how quickly it has gone together so far - with luck I should have it ready for cleaning and priming by the end of today - not bad for what will only be 2 days work! The glazing on top is just a dry fit at the moment but it proves that there is now enough clearance for the seats.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Well, the tail unit went on better than expected, at least on top.

The joint underneath with the flap was not so good.

A bit of work needed there.

 

Being on a roll I added the new "slipper tanks" or maybe "saddle tanks" as some call them, which were grafted on to the FAW.1 airframe together with a number of other changes to produce the FAW.2 and as that did not look too bad I was ready to mask and prime. Not having a "man cave" I can use at this time of year -  my shed has no heat and is both damp and dusty, I normally spray on primer from a rattle can outdoors (under my sheltered porch actually). Unfortunately the weather forecast for the next day or so is lousy - strong winds and torrential rain, but as the wind had dropped I got it done this evening.

 

Generally satisfactory but I will have to do something about the boom tank inserts. There was an obvious joint on the real thing but nothing like as bad as this. no doubt due to the non-scale thickness of the plastic. so out with the filler. I presume Cyber Hobby just added parts to use on their FAW.1 moulding but a new moulding of the booms would have been a better solution. Still to get this far in 2 days is way better than I expected. The airframe is basically complete with only the undercarriage, payload and glazing to go on. I may be putting decs on by Sunday!

 

Pete

[LorenSharp]

It's looking pretty good from here Pete. You're building that faster than an airplane in the Grumman Ironworks assembly line.

[PeterB]

I have given the undersides a couple of coats of gloss white - the white primer certainly helps as normally it takes 5 coats. My white of choice for post-war RN and USN planes is from the Xtracrylic range as it is not quite "pure brilliant white" but an off-white with a slight hint of cream. It looks white enough until you compare it with say Tamiya white and then the difference is apparent. Their "night black" is the same, but in that case it is a hint of blue.

 Now I will mask it up ready for the Extra Dark Sea Grey uppers.

 

Given the number of decs the deadline was getting a bit too close, but I see we now have an extension .

 

Pete

Edited November 3, 2023 by PeterB

[PeterB]

On 10/30/2023 at 11:26 PM, LorenSharp said:

You can do it Peter. Still have ALL kinds of time.

When Loren said the above I was not entirely convinced, but now here we are 5 days since I started abusing plastic and I am almost ready to start putting decs on.

 

My masking was not entirely successful, but then it never really is. However it was not that bad and I have almost finished tidying up where the paint bled slightly under the tape - even the stores are ready which makes a change for me. It seems stormy weather is a plus when modelling in that it keeps me indoors most of the time and even my other half can't be bothered working in the garden - well not that much anyway, though I did have to sort out a bird feeder for her and prepare my Curry Leaf plant for over-wintering - so far it has survived since 2014 but it does need a little heat and some extra "imitation sunlight". I am pleasantly surprised that none of my neighbours have reported me to the Heddlu (Police to non Welsh speakers) for suspected growing of Cannabis as the glow from the light at night is similar to that which resulted in arrests locally earlier this week😄. Of course, given how frequently their helicopter goes over my house I may still get a visit eventually.

 

I may have slightly overdone thinning down the rear of the add-on part of the booms, but not by much I suspect. Walk-rounds like the ones on the BM site clearly show the join between the "new" and original parts, but it seems to be just a thin metal aerodynamic fairing at that stage, probably no more than half an inch thick, whereas the kit plastic scales out at two to three inches I guess, so I had to do something with it. . As you can see, the nose join could also be better but I can live with it.

 

Anyway, now Enzo has granted an extension I can perhaps slow down a little and start something for another one or two GB.

 

PS.

 

For anybody else building this kit there seems to be an error in the instructions - the colours shown on the lights that are part of the small nosewheel door are reversed. Looking at walk-rounds, either both lights are "silver" or else they are red to Port and green to Starboard as you might expect! I have not as yet managed to establish the colours of the small lights at the rear of the top of the Port vertical tail but if they are formation keeping lights I would expect them to be silver?

 

Pete

Edited November 4, 2023 by PeterB

[LorenSharp]

1 hour ago, PeterB said:

When Loren said the above I was not entirely convinced, but now here we are 5 days since I started abusing plastic and I am almost ready to start putting decs on.

 

My masking was not entirely successful, but then it never really is. However it was not that bad and I have almost finished tidying up where the paint bled slightly under the tape - even the stores are ready which makes a change for me. It seems stormy weather is a plus when modelling in that it keeps me indoors most of the time and even my other half can't be bothered working in the garden - well not that much anyway, though I did have to sort out a bird feeder for her and prepare my Curry Leaf plant for over-wintering - so far it has survived since 2014 but it does need a little heat and some extra "imitation sunlight". I am pleasantly surprised that none of my neighbours have reported me to the Heddlu (Police to non Welsh speakers) for suspected growing of Cannabis as the glow from the light at night is similar to that which resulted in arrests locally earlier this week😄. Of course, given how frequently their helicopter goes over my house I may still get a visit eventually.

 

I may have slightly overdone thinning down the rear of the add-on part of the booms, but not by much I suspect. Walk-rounds like the ones on the BM site clearly show the join between the "new" and original parts, but it seems to be just a thin metal aerodynamic fairing at that stage, probably no more than half an inch thick, whereas the kit plastic scales out at two to three inches I guess, so I had to do something with it. . As you can see, the nose join could also be better but I can live with it.

 

Anyway, now Enzo has granted an extension I can perhaps slow down a little and start something for another one or two GB.

 

PS.

 

For anybody else building this kit there seems to be an error in the instructions - the colours shown on the lights that are part of the small nosewheel door are reversed. Looking at walk-rounds, either both lights are "silver" or else they are red to Port and green to Starboard as you might expect! I have not as yet managed to establish the colours of the small lights at the rear of the top of the Port vertical tail but if they are formation keeping lights I would expect them to be silver?

 

Pete

I went back through my morgue files that I had on the Sea Vixen and the top light is clear and  the bottom light is blue. At least that's what I did on mine from a couple of ears ago. Don't know if that is of any help.

[PeterB]

Just for a laugh - spot the difference!

 

 The one at the top is the Frog kit - issued in 1976 it was one of the last they ever released and I built it in the early 1980's, so it has suffered 40 years pipe smoke and general aging - I think I used the old Precision Paints EDSG!

 

Clearly the Frog fuselage is far too fat both in width and depth, but although the nose appears too short the model is in fact pretty close to the published length of 55 Feet 7 Inches, whereas the Cyber Hobby/Revell kit looks better but seems to be around 1cm too long, possibly half of that being behind the trailing edge. The replacement nose is the same length as the kit one so that is not to blame. The span is about right!

 

Pete

Edited November 4, 2023 by PeterB

[PeterB]

2 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

I went back through my morgue files that I had on the Sea Vixen and the top light is clear and  the bottom light is blue. At least that's what I did on mine from a couple of ears ago. Don't know if that is of any help.

Thanks for that - I have followed your suggestion. After a whole day touching the paintwork up it is about as good as I can get it so  I will give it a coat of varnish and make a start on the decs in the morning.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

One of the more noticeable features of the Sea Vixen was the mass of red "keep off" warning boxes painted on almost the entire upper surface of the fuselage behind the cockpit - I don't know if this was limited to De Havilland designs but it certainly was featured on their Mosquito, Vampire and Venom to a lesser extent, and on the Vixen there were so many it could perhaps be said to be detrimental to the camo. Frog just provided raised lines moulded on the fuselage together with a  diagram but I did not fancy painting them, and even if I had red decal stripes back then I suspect trying to use them would have put me off modelling for life and in either case, paint or decal, I would not have had the "keep off" wording. Revell thankfully have provided decs - 19 of them, though I was a bit worried about getting them on. However, as Enzo mentioned in his thread they worked very well and are some of the best decs I have ever come across in a kit in terms of lack of carrier film combined with robustness.

 

So all the big decs are on, leaving just the smaller stencils for the airframe, pylons and stores. A couple of more days should hopefully see them all on. The two little white dots behind the canopy are where I have drilled holes for the whip aerials I will be adding later.

 

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Decals on and stores mounted.

A word of warning to anybody building this kit with the wheels down - fit the outer main u/c doors after the rocket pods as mine fouled the pods and I had to take them off and move them! Also, the location of the redtop missiles is a bit vague - mount them far enough forwards to clear the inner wheel doors when they are moving!

 

So, that just leaves the pitot tubes and whip aerials which I will add later in the morning.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

And finished - except for a final coat of satin varnish.

 

 

Pete

[Adam Poultney]

Looks fantastic!

[PeterB]

Somewhat to my surprise this is now finished within the original deadline. For a large kit (135 parts and lots of decs) it went together pretty quickly. Here it is with its contemporary the Scimitar.

 

To me at least it looks a lot better than the old Frog kit though I gather that the fuselage is still not quite right and that there is a problem with the canopy shape. The nose and seats needed replacing and if the measurements quoted for this plane are correct I make the model about 1cm too long, but it looks the part and I enjoyed it. In fact I have enjoyed the entire GB so thanks to Loren et al,.

 

Pete

[LorenSharp]

Thanks Pete. This is an amazing finish to your many builds in this little GB. And Thanks for letting us follow along with them all.

[FalkeEins]

On 11/7/2023 at 12:59 PM, PeterB said:

And finished - except for a final coat of satin varnish.

Pete

 

 always been put off this kit by the 'negative' comments re the nose shape etc, but yours certainly looks the part Pete, very nicely done!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

An excellent result!   

[Thom216]

Great work on that Sea Vixen.